[2005-09-11-Big Mouth Loud] Daisuke Ikeda vs Katsumi Usuda

[GOTNW]

Just a teaser of what these two can do but what an awesome teaser it was. Usuda has some of the prettiest kicks in all of wrestling and of course Ikeda won't shy away from taking them. My favourite moments here were Ikeda desperately kicking his way out of a leglock and dramatically punching Usuda out. I don't know how much you enjoy violence for its own sake but I love it, and these two are strong enough sellers to not ruin the match with machismo bullshit. There was a great moment where Usuda leaned on the ropes and Ikeda just Lariated him with full force and instead of backflipping outside of the ring Usuda kinda just weirdly bounced off and it looked a lot more realistic and brutal than the spot usually does when it's sold conventionally. ***1/4

[ohtani's jacket]

This was fun, though vastly different from the types of short, athletic matches that they had in their primes. Ikeda was committed to playing the washed up prizefighter at this point. There were some cool spots. I thought Usuda could have gotten a few more licks in, bur this won't disappoint if you like post-prime Ikeda.